i agree that people that get offended do give the words some power however i feel that the majority of the power comes from history and experience an example is the word faggot a lot of gay people grew up with people calling them a faggot with clear hostile intentions such as bullying physical and mental abuse so the word faggot is more then just a word to them its something they associate with all the pain they experienced growing up in conclusion these bad words have a strong history that gives the word power